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Time And Change In Judge-Made Law: Convergence, Divisions Of Authority, And The Restatement, Michael Wells

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In his contribution to Wake Forest Law School’s 2009 Symposium on the Restatement (Third) of Torts, Professor Kenneth Abraham starts with two propositions, one descriptive, the other normative. The descriptive claim is that “tort law . . . is mature and largely stable,” and that “[o]ver time, the law of different states will converge.” As he points out, “The formation of the American Law Institute (“ALI”) itself, and the project of restating the law that the ALI . . . undertook” depends on these premises.

The project of restating the law also depends on a normative premise, namely that …